Remember when we all just used those old stiff brushes?

I finally dropped about $350 on a new rotary cleaning system last spring, the kind with the flexible rods and the spinning head. I was worried it was just a gimmick, you know? But man, it cut my time on a standard flue in half, especially on those older, rougher clay liners in the historic district. My shoulder doesn't ache at the end of the day like it used to after fighting with a heavy pole and a static brush. The real test was a nasty creosote clog in a farmhouse chimney out near Millerton... the old gear would have had me up there for hours. This thing chewed right through it. Anyone else made a switch to newer tools that actually lived up to the hype?

3 comments

3 Comments

wendy_jackson1mo agoMost Upvoted

Actually, it was for the whole rotary system, not just the brush. That price includes the motor head and a few different rods. The brush itself is just one part of the kit.

jones.anna1mo ago

Oh man, you're singing my song! I picked up a similar rotary setup about two years ago and I totally get what you mean about the shoulder pain... my chiropractor actually thanked me after I switched. @the_rose I hear you on the price, I really do, but I saved up for mine over a few months and it paid for itself in time saved by the end of the first season. That Millerton farmhouse job you mentioned sounds exactly like the kind of mess my old rods would have fought with all day. I remember fighting a hard creosote plug in a big old Victorian over on Elm Street with the old stiff brushes and it took me almost three hours... the rotary system blasted through the same kind of mess in maybe 45 minutes flat.

the_rose1mo ago

Oh, so we're just casually dropping three hundred bucks on a brush now? Must be nice to have fancy chimney money.

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